The World After: An EMP Thriller Read online

  I sighed and took a bottle of water. Boring old water.

  When our baskets were filled, we made our way to the counter.

  Only there was a problem.

  The shopkeeper was holding a baseball bat, shaking his head.

  “What—”

  “No take my stuff. No take my stuff!”

  “Hey,” I said, scrambling for my wallet. “We’ll pay—”

  “No take my stuff!”

  He swung the baseball bat towards me.

  I ducked just out of its way in time. When I was down, I saw two options opening up. Stay here and try to talk this man into letting us take this stuff.

  Or run away. Leave.

  Steal the stuff.

  Our first crime.

  I’d never stolen a thing in my life. I wasn’t ready for this.

  “Scott!” Haz shouted, pouring the contents of the basket into one of the rucksacks. “We need to get outta this place!”

  “No leave! No go nowhere!”

  The man swung that bat a few more times. It was clear to me now that he was realising just how serious the goings-on were and that he was planning on battening down the hatches and keeping everything for himself.

  But I couldn’t let him do that.

  We couldn’t let him do that.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, as we stood by the door, the shopkeeper running towards us, baseball bat in hand.

  I threw thirty pounds out of my wallet towards him.

  Then, I slammed the door in his face, and, basket of shopping in hand, I ran.

  Chapter Eleven

  “If we are going to get anywhere,” Haz said, “it’s time we started actually thinking about how we’re going to get around.”

  I heard what Haz was saying, as I looked over my shoulder back down at Moss Side, where we’d just run from the shop owner who’d chased us with a baseball bat. I was gasping and had a nasty stitch right through the left side of my body. It sure showed just how unfit I actually was, which was never a good thing to suddenly discover in a world where fitness was going to be pretty paramount.

  We sat together, me, Haz, Hannah, Remy, and Julia, all of us holding on to our shopping baskets. Haz was loading up the rucksacks with the things we’d grabbed from the store.

  Julia’s eyes were wide, and her face was pale. “I… I can’t believe we just stole this stuff.”

  “We didn’t steal it,” Haz said. “Scott threw him a few notes. Right?”

  Julia shook her head. “No. This is wrong. We—we should take it back.”

  “Julia,” Hannah said, clearly losing her patience with Julia as well, now. “That shopkeeper just chased us with a baseball bat. If there was any order in the world, you should see by now that it has gone.”

  She put her head in her hands. “I just… I just want to go home.”

  Hannah looked at me, then half-smiled. She patted Julia on her back. “And you probably will get home soon. But for now, we have to—”

  “Quiet,” Haz said.

  Julia didn’t hear Haz out. “My husband. He—he always cooks fish on a Wednesday. The most delicious salmon and sweet potato dish. I—I can’t be late for him.”

  “Even if he wanted to cook salmon,” I said, “he couldn’t. The power’s out.”

  “I bet you’re loving this, aren’t you?” Julia snapped.

  “Guys,” Haz said.

  I narrowed my eyes at Julia. “What?”

  “All this time, you’ve been waiting for a chance to get back at me. Well, here it is, Scott. Here’s your chance to see me in tears. Savour it.”

  I wanted to hold back, but I couldn’t. My blood was boiling with what Julia just said. “This isn’t all about me and you, Julia,” I said. “This isn’t some selfish revenge mission of mine. This is real life. And in case you haven’t noticed, it’s in the shit.”

  “Guys!” Haz said.

  “So unless you—”

  Right then, someone covered my mouth.

  It took me a few seconds to realise it was Remy.

  I looked where Remy was looking and realised Haz was looking there too. So too was Hannah, and now Julia was, as well.

  I didn’t register what they were looking at initially.

  But then I saw it.

  There was a group of five. All of them were kitted up in cycling gear. They were standing outside an ATM, struggling to get it to work. One of them was looking at his pedometer, tapping at it.

  Their bikes were a few metres away, leaning against the wall of the building.

  “You know what we have to do,” Haz said.

  He didn’t have to explain what he meant to me. I knew exactly what he wanted us to do. It was hard to face up to what he was suggesting. After all, it was wrong—morally bankrupt, in fact.

  “We’re supposed to just steal the bikes?” Hannah said.

  “Oh God,” Julia said. “Oh God, I’m going to be sick.”

  “Look,” Haz said, speaking more assertively now. “I know it’s not nice. It’s not right, even. But if we want to get to the next town and see what’s really going on here, then our best chance is by bike.”

  “I’m not a thief,” Julia said. “I won’t be a part of this.”

  “Then stay,” I said.

  My voice was louder than I’d intended. We didn’t want to draw the attention of the cyclists our way. But it was loud enough to get the point across.

  “Look,” I said. “I… I don’t like this either. But right now, I can’t see what else we can do.”

  Julia scoffed. “I always knew you were corrupt.”

  “Whatever we do,” Hannah cut in, “we can’t just sit around here and argue. We have to make a call. Right now.”

  We all looked at one another. Haz was clearly in. I’d put myself in the hat, as uncomfortable I was about all this, too.

  When I nodded, so too did Hannah. Remy sighed and nodded too just moments later.

  So it was just Julia left.

  She was crying. Shaking her head.

  “It’s just a temporary thing,” I said. “Just while we figure out what’s going on. It doesn’t make us criminals.”

  “Then what will?” Julia said.

  In that space of a second, I thought of the things I’d done already today—stolen from a shop, and now considered stealing bikes—and I wondered just how far I would go, after all.

  “Oh. Shit. Now’s our chance.”

  Haz stood, and I saw why right away.

  The cyclists were walking into the bank.

  Their bikes were still by the side of the building.

  “Now!” Haz said.

  We ran down the side of the hill. And as we did, I couldn’t shake the adrenaline I felt. This didn’t feel real. And maybe that was the way to approach it. Don’t let it feel too real. Make it just pretend. Like you’re playing.

  We got to the bikes. I climbed on top of one of them. I could hear the voices of the cyclists just metres away.

  Remy climbed on his. Then Hannah, and Haz, then Julia, struggling to balance.

  “Come on,” Haz said, “we have to cycle away before they—”

  “Hey!”

  The shout made my body turn to stone.

  The cyclists were outside of the bank. They were looking right at us.

  “These bastards are stealing our bikes!”

  In that split second, I had a choice. Explain myself. Try to figure out a solution. That was the sensible thing to do; the right thing to do.

  But in the end, I knew what the survivor’s thing to do was.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  Haz cycled clear of two of the cyclists, shooting off up the road. Remy was next, manoeuvring around them before they could get a grip.

  Then Hannah followed, and one of the cyclists reached for the wheel of the bike.

  I kicked their hand away before they could grab her, and my tire went over their fingers, to a yelp of pain.

  I picked up my speed, then, Hannah by my side. I
still couldn’t believe what I’d just done. Not only had I stolen a bike, but I’d just done something constituting an assault. A mugging.

  God help us if the power came back.

  Suddenly, I heard a thump.

  Then, right behind us, I heard a cry.

  When I looked over my shoulder, I realised what was happening.

  Julia was on the road. She’d fallen off her bike. One of the cyclists was by her side, standing over her, then another pulled her to her feet and restrained her, saying something about police and citizen’s arrest.

  “Help me,” she called, making eye contact with me. “Scott. Please. Don’t leave me here. Don’t leave me!”

  I wanted to go back. I wanted to help. And I saw the expression on the faces of the cyclists—they half-expected us to turn around and head back, too.

  “What do we do?” Hannah asked.

  I gritted my teeth together and looked back at the woman I’d hated for so long, and I couldn’t help pitying her.

  “We go,” I said, leaving Julia behind and peddling off into the distance.

  Chapter Twelve

  We cycled for the best part of an hour, but we didn’t make as much progress as I’d have liked.

  The problem was, in a world where every single car seemed to have broken down, bikes were suddenly a very valuable commodity. And I saw it in the eyes of the strangers we cycled past. They stood at the side of their cars, phones to their ears in an attempt to bring some semblance of communication back to life, and they looked at me, Hannah, Haz, and Remy with envy. There was a lack of acceptance there, too. A determination not to leave their cars, because leaving their cars meant accepting that the world had changed in such a short space of time.

  In that sense, we were one step ahead.

  I just wasn’t sure I was quite ready to face up to the road ahead—however long it stretched on—yet.

  I looked at the others ahead of me, and I couldn’t help feeling guilty about what had happened back at the bank, where we’d taken the bikes. Julia had got left behind. We could’ve gone back for her. Don’t get me wrong—I didn’t like the woman, after everything she’d done to me. But I still didn’t like the idea that she was going to be as good as alone in this world from now on, at least until the power came back on.

  But if it didn’t…

  I shuddered. I couldn’t think like that.

  “So. What was with you two back there?”

  I narrowed my eyes, surprised to hear a voice. When I looked to my left, I saw it was Hannah.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t lie to me,” Hannah said, stopping cycling and taking a large swig of water—something which Haz shouted at her for, telling her she was going to need all the water she could get. “I could see the way you two were with each other. Ex-lovers or something?”

  “Oh, God no. Me and Julia? God no.”

  “Then what was with the animosity?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Well. We might be stuck with each other for a while. It’d help to know you aren’t really some misogynistic psycho who’s gonna turn on me eventually, too.”

  I shook my head. “Look. Where I worked. I’d been there for eight years. But… but around the time Harriet died, a higher position became available. Like, a wider manager, with more responsibilities than just the SEO and marketing side of things. I was in a good position for that promotion, and the whole work thing gave me something to focus on, really. I’d served there the longest. I knew my stuff. I was ready for the leap.”

  “And she shanked you?”

  “Not just shanked me,” I said, fast growing uncomfortable. “She framed me.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “She accused me of stealing company money. Made it look like I had.”

  “Shit. While you were grieving, too? That’s pretty crappy. And you survived at that place, somehow?”

  “Only reason I survived is ’cause I had a good guy fighting my corner. In the end, I still had to accept responsibility for what I’d done, on the advice of lawyers. But as you can imagine, after that, I wasn’t really friends with many people there. At least, not the older blood, anyway. And to have Julia a position above me all that time, too… salt in the wounds.”

  “Phew,” Hannah said. “To be fair, that does sound like a legitimate reason to hate.”

  We started cycling again, slowly this time. Fingers crossed, we’d be out of Manchester soon and into one of the many surrounding towns to monitor the situation. “So what about you?” I asked.

  Hannah pretended she hadn’t heard me. I could tell it was pretend. “Hmm?”

  “You are full of questions and curiosities about me. But all I know about you is you’re a mature university student studying health and social care, and that you have a boyfriend.”

  Hannah lowered her head then. “It doesn’t really matter about me, does it?”

  “No, I just thought—”

  “There’s not a lot to know. I’m just getting by in life. Until this frigging EMP—or whatever Haz calls it—hit anyway.”

  I wanted to press Hannah even further for information on her past. But I took her sudden misdirection as a cue to be silent, not to push her any more. I’d already seen her snap at Haz when he criticised what she was studying. I didn’t know why that was, but I knew he must’ve hit a sore spot, and it only made me more curious about why she’d be so defensive.

  But now wasn’t the time, and now wasn’t the place. I knew that.

  It was just me and three other total strangers, all of us doing our best to get by.

  “Shit,” Remy said. He stopped, as did Haz. “You seen this?”

  Up ahead, I saw the outline of a hospital building. The car park was a disaster zone. Ambulances had slammed into the sides of cars. Some had toppled right over.

  By the sides of the ambulances, there were ambulance workers and paramedics trying to reassure people lying on trolleys that everything was going to be okay.

  Others were shaking their heads and covering the bodies of the newly deceased.

  I couldn’t see properly inside the hospital, and I knew it would be unwise to get too close. But I could see small flickers of movement, and I didn’t need a vivid description to figure out exactly what was going on.

  But Haz decided to give me one anyway.

  “Think of all the life support machines. People, dead, in an instant. Think of all the people under anaesthetic for emergency surgery, and even non-emergency surgery. Think of all the chemists that can no longer deliver prescriptions. And… shit. Just think of all the people who’ve tried to call emergency services since shit went down, and how many haven’t got through.”

  It painted a grim picture. A very morbid picture. And perhaps above anything, it rammed home the severity of the situation more than anything I’d experienced thus far.

  This wasn’t just any ordinary blackout.

  This wasn’t just something they could switch back on.

  This was people, dying.

  “Come on,” Remy said, cycling off into the distance. “We should go.”

  I took a deep breath as I saw the flickers of pandemonium behind the hospital windows, as I saw another man get a white sheet spread over his body on one of those trolleys, and then I cycled away.

  It might’ve been bad.

  But I had no idea the worst was yet to come.

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was an hour later that we came across the first real thing that threatened our lives.

  The sun was lowering, which meant it must be early afternoon. It was strange, having something of a track of time, without actually, really knowing what time it was. At least it was sunny, Hannah kept saying—like that made a load of difference. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if she really believed what she was saying. Her words sounded a little… well, forced. And this whole optimistic vibe that was coming from her was at odds with the rest of her character, as I’d experienced so far.

&nbs
p; We should’ve seen the tunnel coming from a long way away. The cars started racking up on the road beside us. We were out of Manchester now, but that didn’t mean our surroundings were really any less urban.

  Then we reached the tunnel and knew there was only one way we could go.

  “So,” Remy said. “If we can’t go over it… if we can’t go around it, there’s only one way we can go, right?”

  Remy was fast becoming the voice of reason, even though I didn’t—and nobody did—know a thing about him. He was quiet, but when he did speak, it was reassuring and to the point. And after Hannah’s display about not wanting to reveal much about herself, I couldn’t exactly start probing at Remy, especially not now.

  “There must be another way,” Hannah said.

  “Back,” Haz said. “Far away from here.”

  Remy shook his head. “This is the best route. The most direct route.”

  “But we know what it’s going to be like down there,” Hannah said.

  “We don’t know that for certain,” Remy said. “I mean, these cars here. Some abandoned. Others… no real fuss around them. Trust me. The second people get trapped in a tunnel, they aren’t just gonna stay there.”

  I saw them looking at me like they wanted me to make a decisive decision. I wasn’t used to being placed in that position. After all, I’d been stabbed in the back the last time I’d tried to reach a leadership role at work.

  But these people were looking at me now, and I knew I couldn’t just stand by. I had to step in and make my voice a part of the crowd of many voices.

  “I think… I think maybe Remy’s right.”

  Hannah sighed. Haz looked mortified.

  “You realise that if anything happens to these bikes,” Hannah said, “it’s on you. Right?”

  “Right,” I said, although it was more out of pettiness than simply accepting full responsibility for my actions. I wasn’t willing to accept sole responsibility for this. I was just making a decision based on what seemed like the best option, just like the rest of these people here were.

  “Then we’d better make a move,” Hannah said. “We’d better get this done with. Fast.”